The Ethiopian government says the country's security and intelligence chief has been assassinated in the capital, Addis Ababa.

A statement from the Prime Minister's office said the intelligence chief, Kinfe Gebre-Medhin, was shot and killed as he entered the Ethiopian armed forces officers' club in Addis Ababa.

Kinfe Gebre-Medhin was always heavily guarded

The statement - broadcast on national radio - said the assailant - who was in the uniform of an army major - was captured and taken into custody.

Reports from Addis Ababa identify the man as Major Tsehaye Wolde-Selassie. Sources close to Mr Kinfe suggest he had a personal grudge against him.

Others say dissenting groups which were expelled from the government are behind the assassination.

Senior army and government officials, including the Foreign Minister, Seyoum Mesfin, have been paying their condolences to Mr Kinfe's family.

He was one of Ethiopia's most heavily-guarded people and questions are being asked as to how he could have been killed by one of his own men.

Loyalist

Mr Kinfe had held the post as head of security and intelligence since rebels of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front overthrew Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in May 1991.

Meles: Had Kinfe's support over war with Eritrea

He belonged to the 30-member central committee of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's Tigray People's Liberation Front, the core group in the four-member coalition that makes up the EPRDF.

He was among those who backed the prime minister in a power struggle that culminated in March with the expulsion of 12 members who criticized Mr Meles' conduct of the two-and-a-half year-long border war with Eritrea that ended last December.

Eritrea, formerly an Ethiopian province, became independent with Ethiopian support in 1993.

But border and economic disputes between the two countries erupted into war in which tens of thousands of soldiers died.